Ha Noi to knock down strange-looking houses

Update:
October, 15/2015 - 07:50

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A skinny house on Ha Noi's To Huu Street. The city's construction authority has managed to wipe out super slim and ill-shaped houses. — VNA/VNS Photo Tuan Anh

HA NOI (VNS) — The capital city's local authorities are making progress in dealing with super slim and odd-looking houses and plots of land in the city, said inspectors from the Ha Noi Construction Department.

Nguyen Viet Dung, the city's chief construction inspector said after a series of vigilant inspections on new houses and land in the city, almost all unqualified houses and lands have been relocated or acquired following the city's construction rules.

An inter-sector group of officers which has been established by the city's People's Committee was intensifying its work on controlling the construction of slim and ill-shaped houses as well as the trading of tiny plots of land in the city, Dung said.

Dung revealed about 175 houses violating the Law on Construction were still in need of relocation, most of them located on key streets including Kim Ma, Lac Long Quan, Van Cao-Lieu Giai-Nguyen Chi Thanh, Dao Tan, Thuy Khe, Minh Khai-Vinh Tuy and Nguyen Trai.

The Ha Noi Construction Department had set up their own plan on managing and controlling the common architecture of new buildings and houses in the city.

It had vowed to wipe out all lands and houses with area under 4sq.m or with an unaesthetic beauty.

For small houses with unqualified architecture, the department said it was co-operating with the people's committees at district levels to deal with about 269 remaining cases among the total 502 violations this year.

The Law on Construction, which became effective in 2004, stipulated that land plots smaller than 15sq.m and houses smaller than 4sq.m should not be built. But many small houses were built in preceding years, some of them so skinny that it is hard to believe people live in them.

To promote the law, the city issued Decision 26 in 2005 on guidelines to eliminate deformed and super skinny houses - and pay compensation for those destroyed.

The decision permitted district People's Committees to withdraw land plots of under 20sq.m or plots above 20sq.m with odd or deformed shapes. It had the power to integrate them into a bigger block for public use.

However, the decision was not strictly enforced. To make matters worse, the number of super-slim and deformed houses has risen to more than 500. The weakness of local construction inspectors and authorities had been given as reasons for the problem. — VNS